EMBERS : the umbrella academy [2] [COMPLETE]

II

     DIEGO THREW THE CONCH SHELL against the wall, and Carla sighed, sinking into her chair.

     All the siblings seemed to had done since arriving was bicker, and she was developing a rather painful migraine above her right eyebrow.

     "Classic," Allison scoffed, just as the doors swung open, Reginald Hargreeves striding in, and sitting down opposite Carla.

     "Not only have you burglarised my lab, set my chimp loose, conned your way into the Mexican consulate," he glared at Diego especially, "Repeatedly stalked and attacked me, but you have, on numerous occassions, called me..."

     Klaus aat down heavily, clutching a cocktail of some sort in his head, "Hey, Pops, how's it hanging?"

     "...Dad," Reginald finished, disgust lacing his tone, "My reconnaissance tells me you're not CIA, not KGB, certainly not MI5, so... who are you?"

     "We're your children. We're from the future," Five spoke up, "In 1989, you adopted us all and trained us to fight against the end of the world - called us The Umbrella Academy."

     "Why on earth would I adopt seven-"

     "I'm not one of them," Carla hastily clarified, "You never adopted me."

     Reginald stared at her for a few seconds, "Okay, six-"

     "No, still seven," Allison corrected, "One of us isn't here."

     "Dead," Diego glared at her, "One of us is dead."

     From his seat, Klaus was turned away from the table, talking to who Carla presumed to be Ben, "Alright, enough of that now."

     Absently, Carla wondered how the ghost was doing.

     Upon seeing the table staring at him strangely, Klaus waved at them to continue.

     "Regardless," Reginald pressed, "What would possess me to adopt seven ill-mannered malcontents?"

     The Hargreeves exchanged uneasy glances, before Five spoke up, "We all have special abilities."

     "Special?" Reginald frowmed deeply, "In what sense?"

     "In the superpower sense," Luther spoke up.

     "Call me old fashioned, but I'm a stickler for a pesky little thing called evidence," he regarded them all, "Show me."

     Carla rolled her eyes.

     Her migraine was starting to become distracting, and it had been far too long since she had consumed a substance of any sort.

     "Everybody wants to see powers all of a sudden," Allison took a sip of her cocktail.

     Carla should have gotten herself a drink, maybe it would help stop the shakes she had.

     "We're not circus animals, okay?" Luther snapped, "We're not gonna bounce balls on our noses and clap our hands like seals for your amusememt."

     However, in a movement so quick Carla barely registered it, Diego had thrown a knife, it hurtling around the room before embedding itself in the wall.

      Reginald looked down to his notebook, scrawling a few sentences down, as everyone else at the table leaned forward to try and peer at his writing.

     "What are you writing?" Diego asked cautiously.

     "You are zero for two, young man," Reginald told him, and Allison let out a snort of laughter.